WFC can’t overcome 7-run first in conference loss

RURAL STREATOR – The Roanoke-Benson/Lowpoint-Washburn baseball team started fast in Tuesday’s Tri-County Conference game against host Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell, scoring seven times on seven hits in the first inning.

The Warriors were able to scratch out single runs in the second and third, but from there the Rockets added six more runs to eventually record a 13-2 victory in six innings via the 10-run rule.

“That first inning we had a couple of plays that we should have made, and if we do the damage wouldn’t have been as bad,” WFC coach Dan Essman said. “Once [R-B/L-W] scored a couple times I could see our demeanor and body language go down, and that’s something that we have to turn around. It was only the first inning, and we had some guys already with their heads down. We were able to get a couple of those runs back, but just couldn’t get much going in the final couple of innings.”

R-B/L-W (4-1, 1-0) led 2-0 with two outs against Woodland starter Connor Dodge before a flyball was misplayed in right-center to allow another run to score. That opened the door for the Rockets’ No. 8 and No. 9 hitters – Evan Schmacher and Jack Leman – to hit back-to-back two-run singles to make it 7-0.

“We have had times over the past few years where we’ve been able to put up a few runs in first couple innings, given ourselves a great start and then let teams chip their way back into things and we tighten up,” R-B/L-W coach Wade Hunter said. “We didn’t do that today and did a good job of adding on.

“This year we have the top four guys of our pitching staff back, and I feel like we are going to be pretty solid defensively. I feel like the key for us will be our offense and today it was good to see us really hit the ball well in the first inning. Overall, I thought we did a lot of good things, like having solid quality at-bats and being patient.”

The Warriors (2-1, 0-1) scored in the second when Brezdyn Simons led off with a single to left off of Schmacher (5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K), the Rockets’ starting and winning pitcher, went to second on a hit by Noah Lopez and scored on obstruction on a single by Eli Quantance.

In the WFC third inning, Dodge reached with one out on a dropped third strike, went to third on a double by Sam Schmitz and scored on a ground out by Simons to make it 9-2.

From there the visitors scored one run in the fourth and three in the sixth off of WFC relivers Reece Pelnarsh (3 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K), Schmitz (1 ⅔, 1 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 1 K) and Lopez (⅓ IP, 1 BB).

“Connor had a tough start, but I thought Reece, Sam and Noah pitched pretty well for us. We did a pretty good job of putting the ball in play overall and were able to put a couple hits together back-to-back a couple times. I also thought while we had a couple plays get away from us in the first, we played a good solid game defensively after that.

WFC will play Thursday again against the Rockets in Roanoke.